Wireless communication services for mobile vehicles, such as navigation and roadside assistance, have increased rapidly in recent years. Most of the services that have been offered are for a mobile vehicle in operation, but more recently, the demands and potential for services to a turned-off vehicle have grown. Services that may be requested while the vehicle is in an off or standby state may include maintenance and diagnostic functions, system updates, vehicle position determination, unlocking of the doors, or vehicle alarm silencing. These services may be requested through various applications over a network such as mobile applications accessible from a user's mobile phone or web applications accessible through a website on the Internet.
Normally when the mobile vehicle ignition is off, a telematics unit within the is placed into a powered-down discontinuous-receive (DRx) or standby state (also called a sleep cycle) to minimize power drain on the vehicle battery. To perform a requested function while the vehicle ignition is off, the telematics unit may be awakened, the desired function performed, and the telematics unit subsequently placed back into the DRx or standby state. For example, a telematics unit may monitor a satellite broadcast channel for a command signal. Based on the command signal, the cellular unit of the telematics unit is powered up. The telematics unit may then call a telematics service provider's (TSP) call center to receive and perform a service request. Alternatively, a data message sent by the call center containing a service request, may be waiting for the telematics unit when it awakes. After performing the service, the telematics unit may return to the standby state.
Even while a telematics unit is in standby state, a network access device (NAD) of the telematics unit may consume power, draining the vehicle's battery. Thus, after a certain amount of time (or the occurrence of some other trigger, such as manually disabling the DRx or standby state of the telematics unit), the telematics unit may end the standby period and switch to a different mode, such that the telematics unit may be unavailable to be contacted by network applications such as mobile applications or web applications.
Thus, it is an object in part to provide a system and method for notifying network applications, which may notify users, that a telematics unit will be unavailable for contact when the telematics unit is ending its standby period. However, while this is an object underlying certain implementations of the invention, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to systems that solve the problems noted herein. Moreover, the inventors have created the above body of information for the convenience of the reader and expressly disclaim all of the foregoing as prior art; the foregoing is a discussion of problems discovered and/or appreciated by the inventors, and is not an attempt to review or catalog the prior art.